Author
Topic: WE GOT BEES!!! AND A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF!!!! (Read 1490 times)

okay, so i didnt respond to the "first time bee keepers shopping list" forum i started because...

2 days ago my girlfriends dad and i drove 2 hours, bought one complete hive that already made it through winter, full of bees. and another complete hive with frames full of comb. also, we bought extra supers with frames, hive tools, 2 bee suites, a brand new smoker, a ton of odds and ends, a couple capping knifes (heated and not heated) a wax collector, a really nice 3 frame extractor, a box of bear jars, and a bunch of other stuff, all for 450 bucks from a farmer getting out of the hobby. him and his wife were a fantastic help, a great couple and we have established a good relationship with them, which i am thankful for. very helpful and VERY informative...

so, now since we have an established hive, we have a whole set of new questions!!

questions for the established hive would be(e): should we feed the bees at all? (we got 4 feeders)what sort of things should we be mindful of?any suggestions?

we have another complete hive thats empty, but the frames are full of comb. question for it would be:we are ordering bees this weekend...we just ad the bees to the deep, as per the usual method?feed and raise as per usual?any other suggestions?

we are excited, we already have bees, and are hoping that assuming we dont run into any issues, will have at least one producing hive! also, we are excited to start new bees and experience that as well. i think we lucked out and got the best of both worlds. we are also excited we got everything we need to extract!

thanks for all of the help. you guys have been invaluable in our quest to start a couple healthy colonies!

pictures would help. how many frames of bees in the established colony? how many frames of honey? how many frames of brood? if you got entrance feeders i'd advise against using them if there are any other bees nearby. we used to use division board feeders way back when but i'm liking the looks of the top feeders that are out there these days for a lot of reasons. it can't hurt to feed them. i'm guessing that in ohio they are just starting the build up and you don't have any major flows going. feeding right around that time will usually get them to build up faster if pollen is coming in. what is the condition of the comb in the empty hive? any wax moth damage? if there are some badly damaged combs i'd trash them and replace them with foundation. yes, install the package like you would on new foundation put any good drawn comb in the center of the hive body. start them out as a single deep then add the other deep later when there are enough bees to need it. read, read, read. ask questions, watch videos, have fun.

If the bees are healthy, you got a fine deal and are right to be excited. When you lifted the hive with the bees in it, do you have any idea how heavy it was? It may be fine for stores or they may be getting hungry. I would hope that you can find someone local to go thru your equipment and bees to give you an idea of what you have.

Look at a frame/comb out of what is almost certainly a colony that died. look at any capped honey and look for any other areas of capped cells that look brown. Take a toothpick and open some up, mainly so you learn the difference in the look of capped honey and the capped dead brood (if any).

Inspect your live colony and make sure they have at least a couple frames of capped honey. If they don't, give them a couple off the deadout. When working the hive, always pull a very outside frame to give yourself room to pull the rest without rolling or crushing bees. That is how queens are lost~! Do a lot of reading of posts on inspections and you will find lots of pictures of brood frames and what they should look like---including diseases.

I envy you the excitement~! You need to do a lot of studying, but you are going to have a lot of fun. Vance

the hive was SUPER heave, but def not light. we screwed 2 long boars to each side of the bottom deep, and hive stapled it all. the two of us are pretty strong and for, so im not sure what normal is. i thought it would be heavier, but it wasnt light by any means. one person would struggle to lift it because of weight and size for sure. its still told cold to crap it open for a look i think. were only just now seeing close to 70 degrees and its pretty darned windy.

SO far so SO good! bees seem happy and healthy. We fed them a 1:1 sugar syrup pail. we ordered california bees which will be here may 4th. I think we are going to move the top super down in the established hive, and ad a screened bottom board. Ohio is HOT and HUMID in the summer. We dont have a natural source of water near by, so we are going to use boardman feeders as waterers. we tried a lunch tray with a little bit of water in it, but a few bees drowned none the less.

I was wondering...

can we take a frame of brood and bees from the established hive and ad it to the new colony to help jump start it? we are buying a super full of good honey, for pretty cheaply, and were going to put it on top of the hive body for the bees as well.

We dont have a natural source of water near by, so we are going to use boardman feeders as waterers. we tried a lunch tray with a little bit of water in it, but a few bees drowned none the less.

I good waterer might be one of those waterers they use for chickens with the upside down container that keeps the dish full of water. Most people that use them pour gravel in to give the bees something to land on. Alter thinking about it, I would use sand. I've seen bees drinking at a pond and they actually suck up water from the wet bank rather than drink it out of the pond.

can we take a frame of brood and bees from the established hive and ad it to the new colony to help jump start it? we are buying a super full of good honey, for pretty cheaply, and were going to put it on top of the hive body for the bees as well.

You can add a frame of brood from the existing hive to help establish the new one as long as the existing hive is going strong. It should help keep the bees from taking off on you as well.Throw in a few frames of empty comb too if you have it so the new queen can get right to work with the egg laying

hey! we went back to our local bee man, and he hooked us up with some more stuff... some of which included a bunch of frames full of honey. some of them looked great. with white wax caps and the honey was good too.

some of the honey is in gray and black comb with gray and black cap pings. it tastes a little odd too. would anyone know what caused that? and is the honey any good? or should it be pitched?